Kildare hammer home their message

LEINSTER SFC SEMI-FINAL Kildare 2-18 Laois 0-9: IS THAT a smile on the face of Kieran McGeeney? "No," he says. "Don't be going saying that. You'll ruin years of reputation."

That is a smile on the face of McGeeney – and after the way his team stormed into their first Leinster final in six years it was impossible to hide it. The Lilywhites are in bloom again and they’ve got that sweet scent of success.

McGeeney reverted to character, and didn’t go beyond describing Kildare’s performance on Saturday as “encouraging”.

It was so much more than that.

It was fearless, unrelenting and very impressive. And it will give Dublin plenty to fret about in the build-up to the final on July 12th.

Long before the final whistle sounded, the Laois contingent among the 14,334 crowd were drifting out of O’Connor Park, their team having gone into total meltdown. In contrast, the Kildare contingent, by far the more abundant, lingered on the infield treasuring the victory for all its worth.

Despite a nervous opening few minutes, Kildare were soon lording the game in every area. Mikey Conway probably set the standard throughout with an exhibition of running-passingtackling and old-fashioned skill.

He was involved in a big way in the majority of Kildare’s scores, but if one of them had to be singled out it was his beautiful foot pass to Eamonn Callaghan just before half-time, which resulted in another point – and left Kildare 1-10 to 0-6 in front at the break.

By then, the game was as good as over. Kildare, in fact, hit 1-11 without reply either side of half-time – which only partly explains just how overwhelmed Laois were.

After their relatively exciting start, when they went three points up on Kildare, everything went from bad to worse. If anything, their three-point return in the second half flattered them.

Kildare’s Dermot Earley was on fire again at midfield. All six forwards scored almost in equal balance, with Alan Smith finishing off the first goal on nine minutes.

Ronan Sweeney, playing at left wing forward, captured the mood of hard work, and scored three points. The influence of James Kavanagh, who finished their second goal on 38 minutes, and Pádraig O’Neill grew. John Doyle was as tireless as ever, ending with seven scores, and his one from play – a gem of a kick from out by the left end line – was possibly the point of the match.

Defensively too Kildare were touching on faultless. Emmet Bolton was exceptional in one corner, as was Mick Foley in the other. Hugh McGrillen cemented it all down at full back, as did Brian Flanagan in the centre.

“If you’ve one good player you’re easy to stop,” surmised McGeeney. “We’re trying to encourage a team performance. That’s the only thing that will get you there.” He certainly got that.

Laois manager Seán Dempsey seemed visibly shaken by the nature of the defeat, which he described as a “hammering”. Part of their problem now he says is consistency – in that “we’re either winning, or getting a hammering. And that’s not good enough.”

The 15-point defeat was all the more inexorable given Laois looked well up for challenge early on. Páraic Clancy gave them an edge at midfield, while MJ Tierney and Donie Kingston looked the part with the placed ball. Kildare’s first goal shook them but it shouldn’t have sent them crumbling – which is exactly what it did.

Dempsey could be faulted for not making changes sooner. It was 42 minutes before Billy Sheehan was called ashore and Joe Higgins introduced, but in reality no amount of changes would have halted Kildare’s dominance.

McGeeney will no doubt find areas to improve on. Kildare hit 13 wides and at least half of those should have been converted. Kavanagh had a good chance for a third goal shortly before the end. “He’ll probably hear about that on Tuesday night,” said McGeeney.

KILDARE: 1 T Corley; 3 M Foley, 2 H McGrillen, 5 E Bolton; 7 M O'Flaherty, 6 B Flanagan, 22 M Conway (0-1); 8 D Flynn, 9 D Earley (0-1); 10 J Kavanagh (1-2), 11 P O'Neill (0-2), 14 E Callaghan (0-2); 13 A Smith (1-0), 12 R Sweeney (0-3), J Doyle (0-7, five frees). Subs: 19 R Kelly for Sweeney (57 mins), 18 K O'Neill for McGrillen (59 mins), 25 K Ennis for Smith (60 mins), 20 G White for Conway (64 mins), 28 A Rainbow for O'Flaherty (65 mins). Yellow card: D Earley.

LAOIS: 1 M Nolan; 2 C Ryan, 3 M Timmons, 4 R Stapleton; 5 D Rooney, 6 G Reddin (0-1), 7 J O'Loughlin; 8 P Clancy (0-1), 9 K Meaney; 10 B Quigley, 11 B McCormack (0-1), 17 B Sheehan; 13 MT Tierney (0-3, one 45, two frees), 14 R Munnelly, 15 D Kingston (0-3, all frees). Subs: 30 J Higgins for Sheehan (42 mins), 29 C Coss for Kingston (48 mins), 24 N Donogher for Rooney (50 mins), 25 C Rogers for McCormack (53 mins), 19 A Fennelly for Stapleton (57 mins). Yellow cards: J O'Loughlin, K Meaney, C Rogers.

Referee: D McColdrick(Meath).